Whats Going on in Christchurch, New Zealand?

Hello everbody on ATS,

after surviving a 7.1 quake in September 2010 and our latest 6.3 in February 2011, I thought I would start a thread to keep updates on whats going on here. To start with here are some quick maps/data that simplify things about whats going on here in Christchurch, New Zealand.

There has been much speculation as to where the fault lines are beneath our Garden City, and what will come next. Even the Scientists have said, it would be prudent to always be ready for more big shakes.

Anyway, here's a great start with a map of Christchurch and surrounding area and a map of all the activity since September 2010.........(remember before September 2010 there was basically ZERO activity here)







As we can see, the latest quake has been classed on being on a "seperate fault line " from last Septembers quake, although it is also being classed as an aftershock from last Sep.. Here's some cool info -

Preliminary analysis of seismograph records of the devastating magnitude 6.3 earthquake on Tuesday show that it was just 9 km from the centre of Christchurch on a buried fault oriented roughly east-west.

There is no obvious structure directly connecting the faults that ruptured in the September’s magnitude 7.1 earthquake with the fault that generated the magnitude 6.3 event. On the contrary, precise aftershock relocations suggest that at least two north-east/south-west trending faults lie between the two and that there is no evidence from the earthquake data of an extension of the Greendale Fault

Here's a brilliant video by a GNS scientist explaining whats going on in a little more detail. I learned a heap from watching this, enjoy.




I must admit, i've been looking keenly at Earthquake activity for a few years now, and it just so happens that right where I live turns into a hugely active zone, when there was little or no activity in the years preceding this.

It will be very interesting to monitor the GNS website over the next while. As it states, they have put extra Seimometers around Canterbury so we will be getting much more accurate data.

Will there be more big quakes, more exposed fault lines? Who knows.


www.geonet.org.nz...
www.gns.cri.nz...
www.geonet.org.nz...


Im going to try and keep updating this with as much info as I can find about recent quakes, scientific discoveries etc. I would love other members to contribute as well, but I do ask can we please not post any information regarding the latest quake deaths etc.

This thread is for future Earthquake activity only.

Cheers, Grant

It's been a strange day today. There have been large gaps between aftershocks and just when you think they are finished, along comes another few just to remind us it's not finished.

Been a couple of fairly sizeable shakes tonight. Long rolling motion quakes that shake our house.


Here's all todays (Fri 25th Feb 2011) aftershocks in reverse order -

Reference Number: 3470295
NZDT: Fri, Feb 25 2011 9:35 pm
Magnitude: 3.4
Depth: 8 km
Details: 10 km south-east of Christchurch


Reference Number: 3470254
NZDT: Fri, Feb 25 2011 7:14 pm
Magnitude: 4.3
Depth: 9 km
Details: 10 km south-east of Christchurch


Reference Number: 3470236
NZDT: Fri, Feb 25 2011 6:23 pm
Magnitude: 3.2
Depth: 8 km
Details: Within 5 km of Lyttelton


Reference Number: 3470234
NZDT: Fri, Feb 25 2011 6:18 pm
Magnitude: 3.2
Depth: 1 km
Details: 10 km south-west of Christchurch


Reference Number: 3470224
NZDT: Fri, Feb 25 2011 5:46 pm
Magnitude: 3.3
Depth: 1 km
Details: Within 5 km of Diamond Harbour


Reference Number: 3470222
NZDT: Fri, Feb 25 2011 5:40 pm
Magnitude: 4.4
Depth: 6 km
Details: Within 5 km of Christchurch


Reference Number: 3470090
NZDT: Fri, Feb 25 2011 11:15 am
Magnitude: 3.1
Depth: 5 km
Details: 10 km south-west of Christchurch


Reference Number: 3470064
NZDT: Fri, Feb 25 2011 10:05 am
Magnitude: 3.1
Depth: 5 km
Details: Within 5 km of Lyttelton


Reference Number: 3470049
NZDT: Fri, Feb 25 2011 9:34 am
Magnitude: 3.7
Depth: 5 km
Details: 10 km east of Christchurch


Reference Number: 3470035
NZDT: Fri, Feb 25 2011 8:51 am
Magnitude: 3.4
Depth: 8 km
Details: 10 km east of Christchurch


Reference Number: 3470033
NZDT: Fri, Feb 25 2011 8:46 am
Magnitude: 3.4
Depth: 6 km
Details: 10 km east of Christchurch


Reference Number: 3469968
NZDT: Fri, Feb 25 2011 5:27 am
Magnitude: 3.8
Depth: 3 km
Details: Within 5 km of Lyttelton


Reference Number: 3469964
NZDT: Fri, Feb 25 2011 5:17 am
Magnitude: 3.4
Depth: 9 km
Details: Within 5 km of Lyttelton


Reference Number: 3469962
NZDT: Fri, Feb 25 2011 5:06 am
Magnitude: 3.1
Depth: 5 km
Details: 10 km south-west of Christchurch


Reference Number: 3469874
NZDT: Fri, Feb 25 2011 0:59 am
Magnitude: 3.2
Depth: 5 km
Details: 10 km south-west of Christchurch


Reference Number: 3469868
NZDT: Fri, Feb 25 2011 0:35 am
Magnitude: 3.7
Depth: 7 km
Details: 10 km south of Christchurch


Reference Number: 3469862
NZDT: Fri, Feb 25 2011 0:15 am
Magnitude: 3.3
Depth: 5 km
Details: 10 km east of Christchurch

www.geonet.org.nz...

I look forward to following the data. Its certainly woken up around there!

Sat 26th Feb 2011

Quite a shaky night, most notable was a 4.1 quake at 6.52am.

Here's all the quakes so far this saturday in reverse order -

Reference Number: 3470501
NZDT: Sat, Feb 26 2011 8:33 am
Magnitude: 3.2
Depth: 5 km
Details: 10 km south-west of Christchurch


Reference Number: 3470469
NZDT: Sat, Feb 26 2011 6:52 am
Magnitude: 4.1
Depth: 9 km
Details: Within 5 km of Christchurch


Reference Number: 3470448
NZDT: Sat, Feb 26 2011 5:49 am
Magnitude: 3.8
Depth: 9 km
Details: 10 km south-west of Christchurch


Reference Number: 3470436
NZDT: Sat, Feb 26 2011 5:15 am
Magnitude: 3.0
Depth: 10 km
Details: 10 km east of Christchurch


Reference Number: 3470418
NZDT: Sat, Feb 26 2011 4:19 am
Magnitude: 3.2
Depth: 8 km
Details: 10 km east of Christchurch


Reference Number: 3470376
NZDT: Sat, Feb 26 2011 1:55 am
Magnitude: 3.4
Depth: 9 km
Details: 10 km south-east of Christchurch

www.geonet.org.nz...

reply to post by grantbeed


I should also add this very cool quake mapper. Just select what days etc you want to see and watch the action -

www.christchurchquakemap.co.nz...

Gidday - I feel for you guys - I think almost all kiwis do. Good video link. We're up north from you, and it's many years since I lived in Chch, but I feel that our whole country is highly at risk. There is a lot of prophetic/God stuff about seismic and volcanic unrest for our country. I think they warrant evaluation, but that's another matter again.

Are you aware of new fault lines being 'created' before? I've not heard of that, so I would appreciate if anyone has data on that kind of thing. If not, then I think we need to admit that our current knowledge is probably going to come up pretty short with regards to what we can expect in Chch for the future.

Also, did you notice this warning about increased risk of a quake in Wellington, because of Christchurch? www.3news.co.nz... I noticed that this warning didn't get much air time with the media. All our lives us kiwis have known that Wellington's days are numbered, but it's like we're living willingly ignorant. Am I the only one who thinks it's a bit strange really, that so many people are leaving Chch, yet there's no mass exodus from other known danger areas?

I hope your local councils focus on the people. Some hard decisions will need to be made about demolishing old buildings, and maybe not rebuilding in some instances. As a local, what's your thoughts on that?

reply to post by latitude39


Hi there,

yes I have briefly seen the footage about Wellington being at high risk now on the Main NZ fault line. It's ironic how they are flying people out of Christchurch to Wellington.

But, for the moment, Christchurch is certainly a hive of activity for quakes. Scientists say that it is no surprise that these fault lines are there, but they were just not visible before as they were underground and hadn't ruptured for thousands of years until now.

Times ahead shall be interesting. I can tell you one thing, No-one down here thinks this is the end of it. Like after last Septembers quake, everyone had a bad gut feeling there would be worse, and they were all correct.

Originally posted by grantbeed
reply to post by latitude39

 

Times ahead shall be interesting. I can tell you one thing, No-one down here thinks this is the end of it. Like after last Septembers quake, everyone had a bad gut feeling there would be worse, and they were all correct.

Profound.

Interesting article about how the quakes magnitude could have been magnified by the hard volcanic rock along the Port Hills,

Quake could have been magnified by volcanic rock

Tuesday's quake was part of the aftershock sequence which followed September's magnitude 7.1 quake near Darfield, 40km west of the city, GNS Science earthquake geologist Kelvin Berryman said today

Mr Berryman said part of the reason why the quake was felt so strongly could have been because it reflected off volcanic rock near its epicentre

Seismic energy travelled in waves and could be reflected off hard surfaces, much like sound waves, he said

"With the epicentre of Tuesday's earthquake in the Port Hills, a large amount of energy could have been reflected off hard volcanic rock at depth. This would have compounded the impact of the earthquake at the surface".

He said there had been an unusual number of aftershocks following Tuesday's quake but these were beginning to weaken and become less frequent but warned there were often anomalies, "as the magnitude 6.3 earthquake had shown".

nz.news.yahoo.com...

wat to say ..if you build a city above an extinct ? volcano....

reply to post by grantbeed


mother earth is having a baby , that's what is going on...

thanks mate nice compalation of info,
been a rough few nights everytime the house creaks and cracks im waking up

very interesting living near this hotspot though, before september i had never experienced a quake and by now im starting to feel seasoned!

cheers mate.

Originally posted by grantbeed
Interesting article about how the quakes magnitude could have been magnified by the hard volcanic rock along the Port Hills,

Quake could have been magnified by volcanic rock

Tuesday's quake was part of the aftershock sequence which followed September's magnitude 7.1 quake near Darfield, 40km west of the city, GNS Science earthquake geologist Kelvin Berryman said today

Mr Berryman said part of the reason why the quake was felt so strongly could have been because it reflected off volcanic rock near its epicentre

Seismic energy travelled in waves and could be reflected off hard surfaces, much like sound waves, he said

"With the epicentre of Tuesday's earthquake in the Port Hills, a large amount of energy could have been reflected off hard volcanic rock at depth. This would have compounded the impact of the earthquake at the surface".

He said there had been an unusual number of aftershocks following Tuesday's quake but these were beginning to weaken and become less frequent but warned there were often anomalies, "as the magnitude 6.3 earthquake had shown".

nz.news.yahoo.com...

I thought you might like this:

all-geo.org...

reply to post by grantbeed


Not sure exactly how the CHCH quake could affect the Indo-Australian plate Wellington is on but don't even want to think about it right now.

reply to post by bluemirage5


Here's just a little bit of what I've dug up re the Christchurch earthquakes:

Christchurch Earthquake 4th Sept 2010.

Christchurch 8th Sept 2010: Sulphur smell or gas?
news.smh.com.au...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Christchurch Earthquake 21 Feb 2011

Strong smell of gas

EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS

Amber Armitage said people were wandering around central Christchurch trying to get out but all exits from the city were blocked.

There was a strong smell of gas and clouds of dust.

A bus on Colombo St was "completely trapped under bricks" and people were working to free passengers trapped in it.

She said the quake felt much stronger than the 7.1 September 4 2010 earthquake and thought the city was "irreparable".

Source: www.murmurs.com...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Was the smell of sulphur (as civil engineers suggested on the 8th Sept) a prelude or sign of another coming?

There are a number of geothermal seeps in and around Lyttleton Harbour. The earthquakes have had two effects. The shaking causes hydrogen sulphide already in the ground to be released. Faulting causes increased geothermal activity = hot water + hydrogen sulphide.

This website explains tectonics:

all-geo.org...

Now it seems to me the smell of sulphur was a WARNING sign. Why was it ignored?

HELLOOOOOO!!!

reply to post by paine


get a home trailer and get the f out of there!
It's not gonna end here believe me!

reply to post by grantbeed


Are we looking at something more than just sinister?...The fact that their are two subjunction zone volcanoes overlaping in the area must be factored in to the equasion..The fact is that Subjunction zone Volcanoes are considered dormant but never extinct comes to mind with the massive number of aftershocks experienced.
Like the previous poster mentioned...It went from nothing to virtually constant activity???

reply to post by anonentity


Indeed, the staggering number of quakes over the last few months, 5113, 40 in the last 24 hours, do raise a lot of concerns, especially with the geological history of the area.

All of the quakes today occuring directly at lyttleton.

www.christchurchquakemap.co.nz...

The recent earthquake was an aftershock of one last year. What is interesting is that the original quake was 6 miles deep (10km)....which is the signature of other earthquakes around the world that some are attributing to devils playing HAARPS. The first one missed the city by 30 miles and the aftershock was more of a direct hit. The question is....is this a symbolic attack on "Christ's Church?"

reply to post by leaualorin


I'm far enough south to be out of the damage zone, but still the old expression to head for the hill's may not be the wisest approach.
Canterbury is hard to leave, I love it here!

pretty sure there was anothor aftershock just then, have to check these maps